Kings’ Drought Ends, 2-2

A horn? Maybe a siren? A whistle? A bell?

It had been so long since the Kings had scored at the Great Western Forum, people had forgotten how a goal would be celebrated.

And then . . . it’s a fog horn. That’s it, a fog horn, and one sounded at 6:16 of the first period Thursday night when Luc Robitaille popped in a goal off a St. Louis skate to end 132 minutes 28 seconds of scoreless futility.

It was the first goal the Kings had scored at home since Oct. 18.

Not that it ended another bit of frustration in their 2-2 tie with the Blues.

“It hit a skate and went in,” said Robitaille, who had requested any kind of a goal--an “ugly” one, any sort--to end the Kings’ scoreless streak. “It was good to get one early.”

Thursday’s tie was fashioned in part because another streak ended in the second period when St. Louis scored two power-play goals in the opening 2:20.

The damage began when Sean O’Donnell hammered the Blues’ Pierre Turgeon with a cross check behind the King goal at 28 seconds. With Rob Blake already off for slashing at the end of the first period, it gave St. Louis a five-on-three advantage, which it celebrated only 13 seconds later with Pavol Demitra’s goal on a shot just inside the post to goalie Manny Legace’s right.

The Kings had killed off 44 consecutive penalties, an NHL-best 56 of 57 over the season’s first 11 games, coming into the period.

Legace, who was enjoying playing with a lead for the first time since the Kings left New Jersey more than a week ago, found himself still under assault, with the Blues still on a power play.

That ended with a game-tying goal by Al MacInnis from the right point.

“It was nice to see [the power play] working,” Blues’ Coach Joel Quenneville said. “We are doing a lot of good things on it, but we have not been able to score consistently with it. It really got us going.”

Said MacInnis: “We needed those goals because they had been taking it to us up till then.”

That the Kings had.

They had taken a 2-0 lead later in the first period when Glen Murray set up just outside the crease and got his stick on a shot by Robitaille, deflecting it past Blues’ goalie Jamie McLennan.

The play was set up by Olli Jokinen, a rookie just in town from Springfield of the American Hockey League, who was credited with his first NHL assist and taking part in the second goal for his line.

“I was a little nervous, but after about 10 minutes I found I could play my game,” Jokinen said. “[On the second goal] I saw Luc was open and got it to him and Murray got his stick on it. I like playing with those guys.”

The Kings had gotten their wish in Robitaille’s ugly goal, if any score can be ugly after such a long drought, but it did not open any floodgates.

In the third period alone, the Kings’ Vladimir Tsyplakov, Josh Green and Yanic Perreault had shots on McLennan’s doorstep but failed to put the puck in the net.

“We had about five point-blank chances that just didn’t go in,” Coach Larry Robinson said. “We just couldn’t get it in the net.”

And flush with a power play with 4:04 to play, another King streak came into view.

They are four for 51 on the power play and haven’t scored a power-play goal since the final game of their five-game trip to the East.

“We still didn’t get any power-play goals,” Robitaille said. “We still need to work on that.”

But the tie provided a bit of salvation, ending a two-game King losing streak, and there were the goals.

And the foghorn is no longer as dusty.